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Once the Mayor, Always Relevant

By

Ralph Gardner Jr.

Updated May 19, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

Every month or so former Mayor Ed Koch invites six or seven friends and members of his administration to an elegant lunch at Jean-Georges, the three-star restaurant in the Trump International at 1 Central Park West. The ritual began in 1990, the year after he left office, and moved to Jean-Georges in 1997, when it started serving a $19.97 Restaurant Week special.

"He said, 'You do the inviting and I'll pay,'" remembers Diane Coffey, his former chief of staff.